The paper sets forth New Jersey high school graduation standards, including the exceptions for special education and limited English proficiency students. General requirements are described under three topic headings (sample subtopics in parentheses): (1) statewide basic skills requirements (the formulation of the Individual Student Improvement…

A judicial decision on issues raised by state diploma denial found that competency testing of Florida's high school students as a graduation requirement violated due process by not providing students with adequate notice. The court prescribed some degree of curricular validity to determine whether the test covered materials actually taught.…

Minimum competency testing has been mandated in one form or another by local school boards or by legislatures in 36 states. Court consideration of such testing has focused on the intent and the consequences of the testing. Where racial segregation in education has existed, courts have argued that even several years after desegregation, testing can…

Recent criticism of public education has led to demands for educational improvement. Responses to this criticism include the development of minimum competency tests (MCTs) and calls for increased academic requirements. This paper reviews a national survey of state graduation requirements that reveals a wide variance in requirements. Eighteen…

As of the fall of 1984, 40 states had by state mandate adopted some form of student minimum competency testing; 19 are or will be using test performance for the award of high school diplomas. In the other 10 states, local initiatives had implemented such testing programs on the school district level. Five states were using competency tests to…

This report describes court challenges to high school exit exams for students with disabilities, explores the legal and public policy issues, and discusses implications for educators. Legal challenges include claims brought under the Due Process and Equal Protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment, and under disability statutes, including the…

After reviewing three current approaches to handling students who fail to meet minimum competency standards, the author proposes a new approach to minimum competency testing. The three common reactions are: (1) doing nothing to help failing students; (2) denying students their high school diplomas; and (3) requiring students to take remedial…

Addressing often neglected broad issues, rather than the pragmatics of test development and administration, this Conference on Minimum Competency Achievement Testing was organized around six topics: (1) social and philosophical roots, uniqueness among testing movements, and policy issues; (2) legal, curricular, and social-demographic consequences;…